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Sentinel: Mars Defence (iPhone)

That Rev Chap — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 10:51:00 +0000

I was in a very tower defense mood over the weekend and divided my time between three of them. The first I’m going to write about is Sentinel, which I’d played before and found very uninspiring, but completely functional. There didn’t seem anything that wrong with it, but it didn’t seem to elevate itself above the standard, either.

Further play this weekend cemented those impressions. I like a lot of what it does, but ninety waves per level seems a bit a much and when you first play a level it’s very, very hard to work out where the creeps will go and where you can build towers. Still, it’s obviously designed for multiple plays through each level. I just went through all four of them on easy mode, just to get a feel for them and to open them up. I’ll probably go back and play through them on medium before before starting the sequel which I bought because, yes, it was on sale for 59p.

It’s a thoroughly decent game with a couple of small problems, but it’s not something I can see myself ever falling in love with. And yet I keep coming back.

Sentinel: Mars Defence (iPhone)

That Rev Chap — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 12:24:00 +0000

I just spent over an hour playing this and was very pleased when I won the level. (It’s level two of four, for the record. Winning unlocks the next level and Endurance mode for the level you just completed.)

I can’t in all honestly say that was the most exciting or interesting hour of gaming I’ve done on my iPhone, but I didn’t seem to be able to stop playing until I won.

So, no, Sentinel may not be inspired, but it certainly does the job. I honestly can’t decide whether I’m being a bit harsh or whether I’m playing it more than it deserves.

Sentinel: Mars Defence (iPhone)

That Rev Chap — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 08:42:00 +0000

I would have thought the game would be called “Sentinel: Mars Defense”, rather than “Sentinel: Mars Defence”, but iTunes is showing the latter. Doing some auto-translation thing, maybe? I don’t mind either way, being quite happy with UK and US English and happy to write this blog in either, or both.

Anyway, that’s not important. Sentinel is a fixed-path tower defense game… or a tower defence game.

Aargh!

I think I’ll stick with the “s” spelling for now, for the genre name, even though it’ll probably cause spluttering from fellow Brits who now think I’m some sort of traitor. In my defence… oh, forget it.

Sentinel is a TD game. I bought it ages ago, but didn’t play it until last night.

First impressions were that it was a solid, uninspiring TD game without anything to recommend it over other games of its type.

Further play cemented those impressions. I mean, it works. It looks quite nice. It’s got a couple of its own ideas – barriers with health, rather than a certain number of lives, and repair droids that can repair those barriers or go off mining resources for you – but that’s about it.

It’s certainly quite addictive, simply because tower defense is an addictive genre and Sentinel doesn’t muck it up. It’s just that the tower selection is utterly bog standard, the upgrades for towers are deeply uninspiring and the enemies are equally standard, for the most part.

If you want a fixed-path TD game, by all means go and spend 59p on this. You’ll get your money’s worth, no question. I might even play it again. I might even find myself playing it a lot. I don’t know yet. It’s a decent game. It’s just that after a couple of hours of play I find it perfectly functional but completely uninspiring.